Previous Breaking News/Phyllis Schlafly

This page contains the items that were once on the "In the news" section of the Main Page. The articles are mainly about Phyllis Schlafly.
Last date of Archived news is May 31, 2008. Contains archives from Jan 2007 to May 2008.

Phyllis Schlafly spoke at Columbia University to around 60 students, responding to questions from a liberal moderator; then she took questions from the audience.

She started the Conservative movement with study groups when no one but Barry Goldwater was willing to call themselves a conservative. Getting him nominated to the Republican ticket is what brought about her first book. "Politics is a lot of tedious work, but conventions are fun." A book by an unknown Illinois housewife sold 3 million copies. This in an age of "me too" Republicans, what we call nowadays RINO (Republicans In Name Only).

She spoke against women in the military and gender norming. She said ERA would remove laws that protect women. She pointed out that "what women want" is not the same as what feminists want, e.g., abortion, ERA, gay rights, and universal daycare. She spoke against the idea that women are oppressed by this patriarchal society (mothers are expected to look after their babies) and that government should take this burden off their back.

She spoke of the change in the feminist movement when it embraced "the lesbians", to embarrassed student laughter. She spoke against gay marriage, pointing out its obvious (but denied) connection to ERA. She spoke against Ruth Bader Ginsburg's "wrong point of view" (her equality principle) by which she opposes the Mann Act but supports co-ed prisons; Ginsburg hates the word "dependent", which informs the Social Security system: a retired man's dependent wife gets 50% while he lives, then 100% on his death.

She denied the social construct view of sex differences, mentioning John Stossel's reports on the intrinsic differences between boys and girls, men and women.

Columbia University students were a class act, complimenting the speaker despite some fundamental disagreements. The students enjoyed several laughs with the speaker, such as this exchange: Student question: "Do you think a woman can be President? Answer: Yes, Margaret Thatcher was a fine leader. But it has to be the right woman. She has to be likable!"

Congratulations to "Dr." Phyllis Schlafly. She said about the disrespectful liberals, "I'm not sure they're mature enough to graduate." Schlafly also "expressed some disappointment that Chancellor Mark Wrighton did not mention homemaker in his list of some of the career paths students were embarking on." [3]

LAURA INGRAHAM: "...Which conservative, which prominent conservative do you think would deserve an honorary degree at Washington University? Why don't you name a few?"

JILL STROMINGER, PROTESTER, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: "Well, I absolutely think that's not the issue, Laura. ... Well, I mean, there are many fabulous choices, like Colin Powell [Note: Colin Powell is not a conservative] ...

STROMINGER: "Laura, you're completely mischaracterizing, you know, what happened and what we were standing against, which is actually part of the reason that we chose to protest Schlafly. Our problem was less her specific viewpoints but more the way that she expresses herself. The way that she mischaracterizes her opponents and how her style of debate changed the debate in such a way that it led people to be oppressed."

INGRAHAM: "Jill, do you or do you not believe in free speech on college campus?"

"BLITZER (CNN): Phyllis Schlafly is critical of you and she's a conservative -- very conservative. You are being criticized by the conservatives, by the liberals, but she said this in The Wall Street Journal on Friday: "He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas and left the Republican Party a shambles, yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a compassionate conservative are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee." Does she have a point as far as your record in Arkansas is concerned?

HUCKABEE: You know, I love Phyllis Schlafly. In fact, her book, "It's a Choice, Not an Echo," was a great influence on me when I read it as a teenager. And I'm not going to say anything unkind about this lady who has been such a stalwart in the conservative movement. Rather than say, hey, you know, I think Phyllis is wrong, I think Phyllis has just been misinformed. Because she's a good and decent lady who is very principled.

But here's the fact. When I came into office as governor, we had 11 House members out of 100 who were Republican. By the time I left, we had had 30.We had appointees all over the place. We had elections that were won. My PAC that I established gave more money to Republican candidates in Arkansas than did the state party. You know, I worked hard for the party. It's a tough environment. I've been against the headwinds of a very tough, Clinton-led political machine in this state.

But you know what I've done that no other Republican running for president has done? I've beat that political machine of the Clintons, the Democrat Party, not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in statewide elections, something nobody else has been able to do.

The Clintons campaigned against me every time I ran, always cordially and respectfully, but they campaigned against me, and I still won in a state that is overwhelmingly, maybe outfitted, if you will, with Clintonistas."